Last week I was alerted of a tip that would make your personal message in MSN/ Windows Live Messenger significantly bigger on your contacts end. It was true and yesterday I tried it out on several on my contacts, and by the time I've started to write up this news post, a fair few of them have done the same.



This hack is a simple unicode exploit in the personal message parser used in Messenger. This does not affect Messenger for Mac, and I believe it won't 3rd party clients as it requires emoticons to be rendered within the personal message itself. Have a look at what we've created below:



How can I do it?

It's really simple. Download this Rich Text Format file, edit the text, emoticons and whatever else within it (excluding the odd characters) and paste it into your personal message. Your contacts should see the change on their contact list (but you won't).

The reason you have to download the RTF file is because most web browsers won't render the characters that make your personal message so big correctly. Don't worry it's 100% safe.

Messenger Plus! Live allows the use of BBCode as well as hexadecimal colors to be used within your Messenger name and personal message allowing other contact's with the add-on installed to view you in a unique and fun way. The variety of options that you have can be a daunting process, particularly if you don't understand the basic syntax of BBCode. WLNameEditor makes this process simple with an easy to use interface.

The script gives you an array of options including adding emoticons, bizarre text and of course colors and standard text decorations. Generally, if you like to "pimp your Messenger" this is a script you should be interested in. I mean who doesn't love a bright pink PSM to stand out from the crowd?



Download WLNameEditor script for Messenger Plus! Live

As far as Messenger bugs come and go, I found one yesterday that tops the lot. Windows Live Messenger checks your personal message before you sign in, the length, and certain strings of text within it. It has caused signing in troubles in the past. I know little of the inner working of the problem, in fact I came across it in the Messenger Plus! Forums yesterday. Basically if you insert unreadable characters, Messenger simply will not sign in.

This could cause a massive annoyance, especially if you do it to your friends, their account will become useless! Anyone interested in the code, here it is:



If you were stupid enough to insert that into your personal message, here are the instructions to fix it, as provided by Jonathan Kay:



Use it how you like, I just want the Messenger team to take this post into account. People could turn something like this into an extremely annoying practical joke.

Update: I've changed the code into an image, it stopped our RSS feed from rendering correctly. Jonathan Kay has provided me with more information about the issue, as I knew little about the problem: